Where saving and spending live together in peace and harmony, hopefully…

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For our anniversary in January, my husband got me a Hermès shawl. Well, actually I picked the gift, drafted the anniversary card, and swiped the credit card. All he did was acknowledging the purchase. Not romantic, but works beautifully. I love the efficiency that comes from this kind of gift giving. He is not stressed about whether he is getting the right thing for me. I am not stressed about whether he is wasting money on some nonsense. Yet, we can still attach a lasting tangible item to this anniversary.

As I have confessed, I love luxury items and saving money. These two passions, needless to say, conflict each other big time. What I have settled now is that I will only buy luxury items for special moments and on things I can use for at least 10 years. While Hermès shawl was an easy pick that fits the requirement, picking the right design was much harder. There are so many beautiful designs out there. Below is a recap of my thinking process:

a. Past seasons vs. current seasons

Choice: Shawls from current seasons that are available on Hermes.com or in store, or shawls from past seasons on ebay or other online stores.
Decision: I decide to go with current seasons for two reasons. First, I don’t want to risk buying a fake one. Second, since I am buying it for our anniversary, I want it to be brand new and with a traceable birth.

This decision narrowed down my selections to what is available on Hermes.com.

b. Which design to choose?

b.1 Color

I went to a Hermes store to try out different shawls. The stores normally would not have all the designs available. So the key was to try out which colors fit my skin tone. I always loved blue and have many clothing items with blue hue. I thought a blue shawl would be perfect. But surprisingly, a heavily blue shawl does not cheer my face up and made me look sad/old. After trying about 20 shawls in store, I find that red/green/yellow fit me nicely. If you are thinking about buying a Hermes shawl, please go to a store to try the colors out. You may be surprised at your findings.

b.2 Pattern

In mind mind, Hermes shawls should be bold and colorful, making a statement. So I was not interested in subtle designs. I want bold and colorful patterns in red, green or yellow. Maybe still a hue of blue just because I love blue.

b.3 Versatility

The diagonals of a shawl are very important. This is something I learnt from Maitai’s Picturebook. The more colorways the diagonals have, the more colors you can match to your wardrobe items. I crossed out a few choices because there is only one color along the two diagonal lines. As you will see from the picture below, the diagonal colors can totally make a difference.

b.4 Designer

The last step is to research the designers on my final choices. Before I buy a luxury item, I always want to know who is the designer (didn’t I mention that I want a traceable birth for my babies?) I have turned down items I love because the designer is not my cup of tea. So after I narrowed down my selection of shawls to a few with red, green or yellow color patterns, I started researching the designers one by one. Google is fantastic. Don’t you agree search engines are one of the best inventions of internet?

The winner goes to:

Name: Brides et Gris Gris
Color: Red/Green/Yellow, and YES! some blue too.Pattern: Very Hermes in my opinion. Bold and cheerful!Versatility: Four colors along the diagonal lines!Designer: Virginie Jamin, a children’s book illustrator and you can see her picture in this WSJ article. Her background explains why the shawl looks so cheerful!

C. Where to buy?

Choice: Online vs. In storeDecision: This was an easy decision for me. There is no Hermes store at where I live and I don’t pay taxes if I buy online. The only additional cost is a $35 shipping charge. I used my 2% cashback card to pay for it, which helps to cover the shipping charge.

Now the baby has arrived, shall we have a baby shower?

Arrived in an orange receiving blanket:

Birth Certificate:

Biological Mother:

Some birthmarks:

Coming out in red and green:

Coming out in Fuchsia and Blue:

See how folding along the diagonals changes the color of the shawl:

Colors, colors and the hand-rolled edges….

I am in love with this shawl! Cannot wait to take the baby out to get some healthy vitamin D fortified sunshine!

Gorgeous choice & so versatile! I love MaiTai, too, have ordered a couple of her scarf rings & wear them a lot. My clothes are mostly solid colors, very few prints, mostly navy, grey, white, pink, and red, and I adore pairing my Hermes scarves with them. Over the years I have gradually accumulated the following scarves that were on my wish-list: 5 Hermes silk scarves in shades of blues and reds and grey, 1 Nordstrom medium-blue pashmina, and 1 Etro wool shawl with all “my” colors in it. I wear one of them nearly every day except in the hottest of summer days when I carry a very lightweight cotton/linen oblong scarf from India.

Thank you! Sounds like our wardrobe colors are similar. But somehow, pink does not work for me. So orange is my alternative to red when I am in the mood for bright colors. Would love to see your collection of scarves! Any plan to feature them on your blog? I have already won my Hermes shawl numerous times. I even wore it when we were in Disney’s magic kingdom. The vivid colors and cartoonish patterns matched Disney colors and themes perfectly! More importantly, it matched my mood on that day perfectly. 🙂

I won’t be posting them on my blog, because my blog is actually the site for my studio, but here are the Hermes silk scarves I have–I actually have 7 (typo above…):
Phaeton in dove grey with a touch of white & navy
Grand Apparat, in white & a touch of yellow & gold with medium blue border
Passementerie in white, blue, & green with a touch of purple & gold and a navy border
Grand Manege in navy with green, gold, & rose-pink
Grande Tenue in shades of dark blue, white, & gold with a red border
Arabesques in red with pink & blue flowers and medium blue border
Les Voitures A Transformation in white, grey, & black, with a burgundy-red border

These are all I want and need, and I have exactly the ones I wanted, I won’t be adding any more. I wear one nearly every day, no matter if I’m dressed up or down, usually in some kind of “knot” or with a scarf ring, but sometimes just folded in half in a triangle and thrown around my neck with the short-point in back and the two long ends hanging down in front then throw on a jacket.

Since I dress in basic separates in basic colors–primarily pencil skirts, sometimes skinny-jeans, knit tops, little jackets, & either heels or ballet flats–my scarves add color & patterns, and you are SO right, they make me feel so good to feel them and see them. Sometimes I choose them according to my mood!

I finally got chance to search the scarves one by one. They are so classic and elegant. I love the Grand Manege and Abrabesques the most. I only have one Hermes silk scarf: Sichuan by Robert Dallet in light purple. I love pandas and that is why I got the scarf. I am still in the collection phase and plan to add one more scarf or shawl this year. Thank you so much for sharing your collection!